A Simple Task
by Michael.Waferd
Summary: A short story that is directly related to Dark Awakening and occurs prior to the events of said story. Featuring the Dryad, Faye and Deval, six months before the events of Dark Awakening. Just a short little fun story about a seemingly simple task and the constant 'fun' these two have whilst in each others company. Contains profanity, violence and adult themes.


**For those of you who remember me, now that I have returned to life, I do intend to finish Dark Awakening. I'm actually rewriting and vastly expanding upon the original idea. I'll re-upload the entire new story once I complete it, hopefully by the end of this month… assuming I don't die again. In the meantime, there's this, a short story which is directly related to Dark Awakening's new rewrite storyline. Sort of a prequel, but not really. © Copyright 2015. All rights reserved to respective owners. Expect errors, I'm dyslexic. For realz's…**

 **Chapter 1- Total Darkness**

 **Dorrin Jungle, located in what was once South America**

 **Deval's Pospecitive**

"Owe! That's my hair," Faye exclaimed.

"Sorry," I replied, untangling my hand from within her long green braded lockets of luscious flowing hair, which I'd mistaken for a vine. "It's not as though I can see what I'm grabbing at."

She huffed. "I don't want to hear that excuse if I feel your hand touch me anywhere else."

"Is this really the time for your witty charm, Faye?" I asked, reaching out ahead of me, cautiously searching through the pitch black darkness for the next vine.

"It cheers me up, all right. I'm not exactly having a good time," she sigh. "I'm supposed to be surface side, gathering resources and biological plant based samples… like you promised, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah. I recall. We'll get your flora once we get our nectar."

"It would be fantastic if we could see where we're going!"

"I have a perfectly clear idea of where we are in coordination to the hive's location. I walked this path ten times before having you accompany me. I just need to find… ah, there it is!" I exclaimed as my hand grasp the fifty third vine. "That's the vine I was looking for. Still has that slash I made in it the first time I was here."

"At least we're getting somewhere, I suppose. How much further?" Faye asked impatiently.

"About seventeen more vines."

She groaned. "This is unbearable. We've been doing this for two hours. This would be so much easier if you'd just place a light source."

"You know as well as I that the hornets and overgrown fliers in this region have an acute sense for detecting changes in luminosity. They might not be able to hear worth anything, but their powerful, complex insect eyes have evolved to pick up even the most miniscule traces of light."

"How are you navigating in this abyss?"

"I told you, I've been here ten times already. I know the way perfectly well."

"How did you find this path in the first place?"

"I made the mistake of using torches the first time," I chuckled. "Nearly brought the entire damn hive down on Jess and I."

"Oh… So she was with you?"

"Yes, Jess was with me. You really need to let that go Faye," I groaned, navigating ahead through the blackness, down a long mossy path, lined with dense foliage and thicketed by large spider webs.

"I'm never changing my opinion of that woman."

"I won't ask you to like her, just to get along with her."

"Never," she stated without hesitation.

"Stubborn as always," I thought to myself shaking my head and reaching out for the next vine.

Faye and I had come to the jungles of Dorrin from the town located on my island to the far North in search of honey. The town was completely out of the stuff and it was of the up most importance that we aquire more before the Party Girl lost her composure. It was a simple enough task, one I'd done many times before.

Though simple, it was a particularly dangerous venture, considering the giant bugs, mutated due to the otherworldly energies that had long ago poisoned and forever augmented the Earth. That, and the massive worms, man sized spiders, array of poisonous plants, sheer cliffs and abrupt drop offs hidden by moss and shrouded in absolute darkness and of course the titanic queen bee which roamed the area… Amongst other threats. The queen hardly ever came out of her nest, she was always too busy laying eggs.

I knew from prior visits that the honey we searched for was located within the main hive, a few hundred yards ahead. Doing this in the day, without any light at all from the Night Blooms, was a tad difficult, but not impossible. I'd memorized each and every pebble along this path. So long as a giant hornet didn't land in the middle of our trail, they'd never even suspect us. Getting into the hive wasn't an issue either, as one of the main severance ports used by the workers was directly at the end of the long dark abyss. Having been inside the hive many times before, I knew that it dropped down from the entrance about fifteen feet into a massive bat of shallow honey.

I'd collected from this site several times before, with a few incidents admittedly. None that I couldn't manage to overcome. I expected that this time would go the same way as all the times prior. I'd brought Faye with me, partially because she wanted to come alone, expecting to collect plant samples from the surface as soon as we collected the honey, but also because she was the only one capable of sensing where Plantera was at any given time. The last time I was here I had explored in a new direction, only to nearly step directly onto a glowing pink mass of flesh that I know for a fact has to something to do with the monstrosity's neurological detection network. Sort of like a spider web of landmines, littered throughout her hunting grounds. Faye would be able to detect any such bulbs as well as Plantera herself, for Faye possessed an intimate connection with organic entities. That was sort of her thing, after all.

"You do know where we are right now and where we're going, right?" Faye prodded, tightly clenching the back of my shirt, allowing me to guide her onwards.

"I know exactly where we are. We're nearly there."

"Good, because I don't want to spend any more time down here."

"I thought that all this plant matter would make you happy."

"These plants don't mind me intruding, but they are not at all pleased to see you. I can feel their energies, reaching out towards us, trying to destroy you. If we're not careful, Plantera might sense our presence."

"She's never sensed me before and she won't attack you. You two are practically sisters," I teased.

"I take offense to that… Plantera is a mindless murderous monstrosity, nothing more than a product of the dark flux, while I am an intelligent and radiate creature of insight and ancient wisdom."

"We're all products of the flux energies, love."

"Don't ever call me that!" she hissed distastefully. "You and I are in a strictly professional relationship. Don't you ever forget it either!"

"How could I forget?" I mumbled under my breath. "Maybe you should tell that to Andre, the guns dealer."

"Please. He's not nearly intellectually capable of comprehending the word, no. I simply avoid him as often as possible. He won't stop flirting with me, despite my attempts to disbar him."

"Just don't do anything that might send him to the nurse. They sort of have a thing together, you know… and it's disgusting."

"How so? If she's foolish enough to be swayed by that thug, let her deal with the mindless beast."

"I mean that their always making out… all the time, everywhere. It's disgustingly cute and I can't stand it one bit."

"Oh," she giggled. "Does it remind you how you're alone?"

"You're alone to, hate to remind you."

"I'm a Dryad. We do not mate, or pair off. We're all female and having been born from nature we have no reproductive functions what so ever, nor do we require them. We are immortal. If we die, Mother Nature will rebirth us… Sorry to disappoint you," she chuckled sinisterly, as though her words were a genuinely brilliant comeback to inflict additional heartache on me.

"Hate to tell you, but I've got no interest in you either. You're far too much trouble for me to handle."

"Yes, I realize. Besides, you're far too busy taking care of yourself to worry about another person's wellbeing. You'd never manage in a relationship with me, or any other person for that matter."

"I hardly consider you a person Faye," I stated, continuing the insult war as if I were an immature child, incapable of not having the last word in an argument.

Faye dropped it, realizing that I wasn't going to stop being an ass towards her. I felt a tad regretful after that. If only I could tell her that everything I'd said was just for show… She'd never understand. It was better this way. That, and she apparently meant what she said, so there was little reason to assume that even if I did tell her she was going to care. I'm too sensitive to risk that kind of rejection. "We men are sensitive creatures when it comes to this sort of thing," I thought to myself, thinking of Drey. "Best to simply say nothing at all."


End file.
